Date Night - Dinner & a Movie
by nikinou
Summary: An impromptu date


Peggy and Stan have finished their coffee and pastries and are bundling back up for the walk home to their apartment. It's 4:30 in the afternoon and the winter sun is hanging low and shrouded in the the foggy winter sky. Stan loved the winter, feeling the cold air in his lungs, admiring the luster of the snow. Hell, he loved all of the seasons, loved the promise of spring after the months of cold, loved the heat of summer, along with the sultry humidity that enveloped New York, but he especially loved the fall. New York is particularly beautiful in the fall, the trees in the parks are all different species, which makes for a beautiful array of foliage...the song Autumn in New York really doesn't do it justice at all. Peggy, on the other hand, is not a fan of winter. She finds the snow to be a big, cold, uncomfortable nuisance. She is trying to see things his way, but the cold will never be one of her favorite things.

Stan and Peggy step out onto the sidewalk and he cups her face in his hand and kisses her.

"Listen, Peggy...I'm sorry that we argued like that. I don't want to make you unhappy, but I do want to feel like we can tell each other everything, always. Let's just not be hurtful to each other. I mean, I always have told you everything. Peggy, really...you are, and always were, my best friend, above all else."

Peggy is overcome with emotion now and hot tears are rolling down her cheeks. Who knows what it was, hormones, exhaustion...whatever...but she can't just stop the tears. He has long been her best friend too, but now she is afraid she took him for granted for far too long, and that makes her feel sad...and maybe a little guilty.

"Oh God, Peggy...please don't cry." Stan is uncomfortable when she cries.

"I don't want to, Stan. Really. You're my best friend too. I just feel so bad about rejecting you all that time. You always were good to me. You never let me down. I don't know what was going on in my head..." She is trying to regroup and stop crying, to no avail, when Stan pulls her into a bear hug.

"Ok, it's fine. Look, I was a jackass with you in the very beginning...YOU helped me grow out of that. Peggy, it was you, you made me a better person. I mean it."

This isn't helping her. She wraps her arms around him and sobs into his jacket, she is tired and cold, and maybe slightly embarrassed.

"Ok, ok. Calm down...everything is ok. Relax..it's all ok." Stan is holding her and patting her back gently.

After a while, Stan feels her sobbing subside, and pulls away and looks at her. She is a bit of a mess, but still so beautiful in his eyes.

"Listen, we're not going to see eye to eye on everything...we never have. But I do want us to stay honest with each other. There is no point in hanging onto what may be bothering us if we can talk it out, work it out."

"Ok, you're right, Stan." Peggy takes a deep breath. "And I want you to know, I don't have any doubts about you. None. Truly." She is wiping away the tears.

'God' she wonders, 'I don't know how these emotions sneak up on me like this. It is the hormones...has to be. Normally I'm pretty stoic. Stan and I argue all the time, it's just who we are. Oh no, what if I can't keep it together with clients? How are clients going to react to a pregnant, emotional copy chief? You know what, that's their problem...this is my life...'

Stan smiles at her "Ok, ok...let's go home...you look shot." He gives her some tissues from his coat pocket. "Don't worry, they're clean" he tells her, seeing her smirk when she eyes the unappealing, wrinkled wad. He wants to move on to different subject matter. "When are you calling your doctor? Let's find out for sure, make sure everything is ok..."

Peggy blows her nose. "I'm going to call first thing on Monday. I want to know for sure too. I would really like to know what the due date is." Peggy responds.

Stan drapes his arm around her shoulder. "Let's go home." They walk down Macdougal over to Bleeker Street and head toward home. Peggy never realized how much she loved the Village until she moved in with Stan. She really loved Bleeker Street, with all it's quirky little shops and restaurants. She still felt irritated at how she had been talked into the Upper West Side by Abe (while she footed the bill) and never really felt comfortable there. The Village was definitely all Stan, teeming with artists, musicians, poets, students, free spirits. He had lived in a tiny apartment on Sullivan Street before he moved to this apartment two years ago. It was a dream of his to live on Commerce Street, one of maybe three or four L-shaped streets in New York. Their building, which was called Star Corner, is a five story building, built in 1895, one of the newer buildings on the block. The rest of the buildings on the small, quiet, tree lined block are town homes, nearly all built in the 1820s. There is so much history in this part of Manhattan, and not so easy to just tear down, which is what Stan loved. Down on one end of Commerce is the Irving House, where Washington Irving wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and on the other end is the Cherry Lane Theater, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was one of its founders. She lived around the corner on Bedford Street, in the narrowest building in New York. Stan gave Peggy an interesting walking tour of the Village in November. He was so passionate about the architecture and history, and that day, she learned more about him too. Though she always admired his intelligence, she realized he was more complex than she ever knew.

He was disgusted that the city allowed the destruction of the original Pennsylvania Station, an architectural treasure. The Pennsylvania Railroad sold the air rights to the property and downsized the railroad station. The original Pennsylvania Station, which took up two city blocks was completed after nine years of construction in 1910, and was considered a masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style and one of the architectural jewels of New York City. Thomas Wolfe described it in "You Can't Go Home Again" as "Nine acres of travertine and granite, 84 Doric columns, a vaulted concourse of extravagant, weighty grandeur, classical splendor modeled after royal Roman baths, rich detail in solid stone, and an architectural quality in precious materials that set the stamp of excellence on a city." Despite public outcry, the above ground head house and train shed of the station were demolished and replaced by Madison Square Garden and Pennsylvania Plaza between 1963 and 1969. Penn Station still exists, but entirely underground and void of its former glory.

"Do you want to go home, or maybe to a movie." Stan asks her.

"Not sure. I guess I could go see a movie. That might be fun." Peggy realizes that they'll be back at work on Monday, they should make the most of their time together.

"Ok, let's see if anyone still has a paper and see what's playing." Stan is happy that she wants to be out.

"You know, I really want to see 'Love Story'" Peggy tells him.

Stan tells her "Ok.", while he is really thinking, 'God no'. But if this will make her happy, it's fine.

"You do realize, Peggy, it's a tear-jerker." He tells her.

"Oh, I know. I read the book." She replies.

"And this is what you're in the mood for, right now? Well, we're gonna hafta buy a paper and a bunch of tissues. I am all out." He says.

Peggy is laughing now. "You know what would be smart? If the theaters sold those little pocket packs of tissues, just for the tear-jerkers!"

He is glad to see she has recovered, and that business mind of hers is always running. They step into a small stationery store, where Stan finds a newspaper, and Peggy asks if they sell those pocket packs of tissues...the clerk tells her "Try the deli, next door."

"Go ahead, Peggy. I'll meet you over there." Stan tells her.

Dusk is settling on the city. The last slivers of reddish sunlight are shining in the wets streets. The snow seems to be absorbing a lot of sound.

Stan meets Peggy in the doorway of the deli. "I bought two packs, one for me, one for you." she tells him with a big grin.

"Good, I'll probably need 'em." Stan rolls his eyes and laughs. Peggy knows him better, he WILL need them. "Ok, Pegs, it's playing at The Waverly at seven, we can walk over there. Wanna get some pizza before?"

"Yesss!" All of sudden, Peggy is dying for pizza.

He rolls up the paper and stuffs it inside his coat. He grabs her hand. "Come on...let's go." The search for pizza is not a long one, there is a pizza place at the end of the block (and nearly one every few blocks in New York). They enjoy their slices and cokes in the bright, steamy pizza place and then walk over to the movie theater. There is already a line outside, mostly women, some couples...Stan feels these guys have all been dragged there by their women.

The line moves along, they are finally inside, getting tickets. "You want popcorn? Stan asks Peggy. "Ummm, maybe later" Stan can't believe she could even think about more to eat, but hey, she's pregnant, who knows. Peggy and Stan settle into their seats and the movie begins. Stan really wants to hate this movie, but is being drawn in by it. He is enjoying their mildly antagonistic repartee at the beginning of the movie, it reminds him of himself and Peggy. Peggy is enjoying the scenes of Boston, she only just discovers Boston herself, going to Priscilla's bridal shop. As the film moves on, they are both enjoying scenes of New York, covered in snow, just like it is today. Later, Stan sees that Peggy becoming upset when Jenny, the main female character, is having trouble getting pregnant. By the end of the movie, Peggy is dissolved into convulsive tears, and Stan, for all his posturing, can't help but sob, seeing Oliver lying in Jenny's hospital bed, holding her as she passes away in his arms. He imagines what life without Peggy would be, and it is just too much for him.

"Here Stan." Peggy hands him the tissues.

As the film credits roll, Stan wipes his eyes and turns to Peggy and says..."Ok, next movie is MY choice."

"Come on, I know you liked it!" Peggy calls him out.

"I didn't say I didn't like it, I just don't need to feel bad while supposedly being entertained" he tells her. "And just so you know, I HATED that line "Love is never having to say you're sorry". Bullshit. Love is saying sorry when you should, and meaning it."

"Do you know how much I love you?" Peggy asks Stan.

"Quite a bit?" he replies.


End file.
